


Look Up at the Stars

by mechafly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Bottom Kenny - Freeform, Force-sensitive Kenny, Jedi Kota, M/M, Space Battles, The Fed is evil in every universe, The Force Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 15:17:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17552135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechafly/pseuds/mechafly
Summary: Kenny Omega encounters a mysterious captive called Kota Ibushi aboard his ship, and has no idea how much his life is about to change.--Two extremely silly franchises collide. A tale about New Japan characters set in a Star Wars universe.





	1. Chapter 1

In the dark corridors of the _Elite_ , Kenny Omega’s eyes went to the captive.

The man was wearing desert-coloured robe that tied around his slim waist. Long wrappings wound around his wrists and ankles. He looked like a mystic warrior out of a holofilm.

Kenny immediately dismissed the thought as another fanciful bit of nonsense and turned his attention to the soldier leading the little pack.

It was Cody Rhodes, accompanied by two stooges who dragged the bound captive along.

“What’s this?” Kenny rapped out.

Cody froze as if struck and turned his reptilian eyes mistrustfully in Kenny's direction. "Goes by the name of Ibushi," he said curtly. “He’s my captive.”

Kenny waited.

"... Captain," Cody said reluctantly.

Kenny dismissed them with a wave. Cody jerked his head and directed the troopers onwards. As his footsteps stalked away he muttered to himself. Kenny watched in amused silence. It was no secret that Cody envied Kenny’s position as captain of the _Elite_ , the foremost bounty hunter ship in the galaxy, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Kenny’s attention was suddenly caught by the flash of the captive’s eyes as he turned back to stare at Kenny. A frown creased Kenny’s brow. He hadn’t become a renegade from the imperial Federation and the captain of the famed _Elite_ , without having strong instincts. They were never wrong.

And right now his instincts were screaming at him that that prisoner was more dangerous than his slight frame and strange costuming suggested.

Kenny lingered for a moment longer, but the dark corridor gave up no further secrets. He shook his head. There was enough to be getting on with.

He headed back to his quarters. The rooms were small, but they were the only private quarters on the whole ship. After an entire lifetime of sleeping in soldiers’ barracks or worse, Kenny appreciated them dearly. His few private possessions littered the desk by the bed, which he’d made himself with military precision. It was an old habit from the Federating training grounds which he’d never shaken. An old holovid and some contraband hologames piled on its surface.

Kenny left his soldier’s cap by the side and went into the compact, clinical bathroom. He caught a glimpse of himself In the wide mirror. His face was haggard and the signs of a restless night were clear on his face. He’d dreamt of explosions, and swords, and bloodied feathers. Strange dreams. He stared at his dark reflection. His blond hair was slicked torturously into military order and the collar of his heavy buttoned uniform pressed against his throat.

Kenny smirked at himself, his blue eyes flashing in the dark light. It was funny how he’d kept up the same habits from his former life as a young man in the Federation. He’d been nothing more than a common foot soldier there, his face concealed by a helmet, and yet these small habits had come to define him here, on his own ship. Hell, they even had their own knock-off troopers these days. Furthermore, he knew for a fact that Cody, another renegade from the imperial Federation, was making deals with the Fed on the side. Nick Jackson, Kenny’s second-in-command, was another ex-Fed. Perhaps none of them had learned to shake off the habits of a lifetime.

The sounds of shouting echoed down the corridor. Kenny frowned and stalked back out of his quarters, his boots cracking against the reflective floors. That was coming from the direction interrogation chambers.

Those chambers were soundproofed. Kenny knew this intimately, because he’d been an expert interrogator aboard the _Elite_ under its last captain. He’d a sixth sense for the truth about people, and he’d exploited it to the full, until the day had come to double-cross the captain and seize control for himself.

He stormed down the silvery black corridors of the ship. Troopers leapt to get out of his way, pressing themselves against the giant black walls. His long military coat flew out behind him. He could still hear the shouting. He pressed a hand against the scanner on the door of the interrogation chamber - access granted for the captain - and entered.

The prisoner was strapped into an interrogation chair, his arms, chest, and legs bound by black restraints. Cody froze in mid-rant and stared up at Kenny looming in the doorway, his colourless eyes twitching back and forth.

Kenny closed the door with a click and stalked around the room. “I heard voices - shouting.”

“This bay is supposed to be soundproofed,” Cody lisped in confusion.

Kenny was too busy staring at the prisoner to hear his reply. The captive’s eyes were fixed on Kenny. His face was neutral and his dark eyes were watchful. A light sheen of sweat covered his face. In the corridor, he’d appeared young - but something about the man’s gaze seemed too knowledgable. Kenny's brow creased. The prisoner wasn't glaring, begging for mercy, or crying as expected. His face was unnaturally calm.

“Report on the prisoner, Rhodes,” Kenny snapped out.

“Um, Kota Ibushi, sir. Caught on the Coruscantian system earlier today. My own work,” Cody’s chest swelled. Kenny inwardly rolled his eyes. Cody couldn’t catch an important mark if his life depended on it, but he fancied himself a military expert. He and Nick privately referred to Cody mockingly as the ‘three-star general’. “It was hard work! He resisted, but he was finally unable to withstand my—“

“What does he know, Rhodes,” Kenny said flatly.

“Uh, know? I, uh, don’t know, sir,” Cody stuttered.

“So what are you interrogating him for? Is he Resistance? Is he wanted by the Federation? Who the hell is he?”

Cody cowered under this barrage of questions. “I - I - I don’t know, sir, I only just started!” He wailed. Kenny’s lip curled. He thought privately that Cody would hardly be able to withstand one of his own shoddy interrogations, let alone expert Federation torture.

“I’m Ibushi Kota,” the prisoner said suddenly. It was the first time he’d spoken. His voice was surprisingly deep. Kenny stared at him.

“Shut up, prisoner!” Cody raised a fist and made to strike Ibushi’s cheek. Kenny grabbed his wrist. Cody struggled briefly in Kenny’s iron grip before his hand went limp. He cringed away when Kenny released his wrist.

“Now, now, let the man speak,” Kenny said pleasantly.

He turned his eyes back on the prisoner. Sometimes it was smart to let them talk. His sixth sense told him that there was something Ibushi was brimming to reveal, some secret hovering close to the surface. Ibushi had seemed bored by Cody’s threats and shouting, but his interest had been piqued as soon as Kenny had stepped into the interrogation chamber. Almost as if he’d been expecting Kenny to show up.

What could a random nobody from the Coruscantian system want with the captain of the _Elite_?

Kenny intended to find out.

He stared at the man in frosty silence. Ibushi stared back, unintimidated by his bound position or the fact that he was so restrained that he couldn’t even turn his head. Something sparkled in his black eyes. Kenny broke eye contact first, his gaze roaming all over Ibushi’s face. Ibushi’s generous mouth sat at odds with his severe, not unhandsome features. Cody muttered something to himself in the background. They both ignored him.

“Speak, then, prisoner,” Kenny rumbled. “Tell us who you are, since you’re so excited to introduce yourself.”

Ibushi’s mouth quirked. “Why don’t you tell me about you?”

“Who’s the one tied up, and who’s the one in charge?” Kenny retorted.

Ibushi smiled in response. Kenny felt his instincts prickle. “I am,” he said. “Sorry, which question did you want me to answer?”

“Smart mouth,” Kenny muttered, cracking his knuckles. “You might regret that in a moment.” He stepped back and looked around the room, sizing up what was available. Cody was still standing white-faced by the wall, his expression betraying dismay at having been pipped from his own interrogation. “Rhodes, get the hell out of here and let a professional handle this.”

Cody scuttled out like a fleeing cockroach. The door slid shut behind him with a definitive click.

There was a considering silence.

“I’m glad he’s gone,” Ibushi said. “I didn’t like him very much.”

“Oh?” Kenny turned to smirk at him. “And why is that?”

_“He’s not a good person.”_

Kenny frowned. He’d heard Ibushi’s low, silken voice as clear as day, but Ibushi’s mouth hadn’t moved.

Kenny circled around the chair, shaking his head to cover his sudden confusion. “You’ll soon find that I’m not a good person either.” He allowed the veiled threat to linger in the air.

Ibushi bit his lip and was staring right at him. Kenny stared back: Ibushi’s intent eyes felt like they were reading Kenny’s thoughts from his frozen expression like a book.

Kenny cursed himself. Something about this captive was taking him off guard. “What do you know about this ship?”

“It’s an ugly place,” Ibushi said.

Kenny shook his head, pacing. “If you tell us who you are and what you know, maybe we can hand you straight over to the Federation. Skip the torture in between.”

Ibushi smiled that same smile at him. The kind of smile that said he was enjoying himself. “You still haven’t told me anything about you.”

“Do you know who I am?” Kenny demanded. He knew that he was somewhat infamous in this quadrant, which was one of the main hunting grounds of the _Elite_. But Ibushi’s interest wasn’t that of someone looking to hurl insults and blame. It was of someone who was exactly where they wanted to be.

“Your name’s Kenny,” Ibushi breathed.

“ _Captain_ Omega to you,” Kenny snapped.

He had no chance to say anything further, because the door flew open. Cody stood in the doorway, flanked by troopers. “Your time’s up, Cleaner!” He snaked unctuously into the room. Kenny spared a moment to feel a prickle of annoyance at the old nickname. He’d been mistaken for a cleaner when he’d joined his first ship, and somehow the moniker had followed him for his whole career.

The troopers were holding up phasers, pointed at Kenny. Cody puffed up with confidence in their presence. “The whole crew’s sick of your captainship. I’m the captain of the _Elite_ now!”

Kenny wasn’t so sure that the troopers would be willing to follow Cody’s lead just because he’d said so. No, this was squarely between himself and Cody alone.

Kenny lunged at Cody and dodged the fist that flew his way. He threw Cody over his shoulder and turned to knee him in the face. But where Cody should have been, there was only empty air. Cody was a crumpled heap on the floor. The prisoner loomed over him, free of his restraints. He shook out his wrists and rolled his shoulders.

“That chair was getting seriously uncomfortable.” Ibushi smiled at Kenny’s incredulous stare.

"How the fuck did you--" Kenny reached for the phaser at his hip, but it was ripped from his grip by an invisible hand. Ibushi lifted his hand and sent it careening into the wall.

Kenny’s eye twitched. “Get him!” The troopers, heretofore transfixed, snapped to attention.

The fight which followed was the most perplexing sight Kenny had witnessed in his thirty long years. Ibushi leapt over the heads of the troopers like he was a stuntman in a holofilm. He kicked and punched and tore phasers from the surprised grips of gasping soldiers. Soon they and their weapons were lying in a groaning heap at his feet.

The prisoner and Kenny stared at each other.

Ibushi grinned. Not a hair was out of place. He’d taken out five of Kenny’s specially trained troopers without pausing for breath.

Who the hell was he? Kenny considered how he was going to take this man down and figure out exactly who - or what - he was. He was caught off guard when Ibushi high-tailed it out of the door.

Kenny stared at the empty doorframe for a long second.

“Get back here!” Kenny screamed. He chased after Ibushi, eyes trained on his back. Ibushi’s robes flew out behind him in a majestic swirl. Sand-coloured robes. Robes that would normally belong to a mystic, or spiritual. Ibushi was heading back towards the hangar bay. That was where his ship had been docked after his capture. Looking to make a quick getaway, Kenny surmised. He wouldn't allow it to happen.

The roof over their heads shuddered suddenly and all the lights blinked out. Kenny cursed and kept his eyes on where he’d last seen Ibushi. It was completely dark, but he could still hear Ibushi’s feather-light footsteps. It was all he could do to keep up, his uniform heavy on his body. Where the hell were all his troopers?

The hangar bay opened up, wide and high-ceilinged in front of him. Ibushi’s leaping form was visible between the neat rows of ships, heading steadily back to his own ship in the distance.

Kenny made to yell at his back, but then a horrific sight caught his attention and made him gasp.

High up ahead, in the plate glass that exposed the roof of the hangar bay to the outside, was the solid, creeping formation of Federation warfleet.

Kenny swore.

As if on cue, a shrill alarm rang out and the lights came back on, a brilliant red. The hull was under attack.

Kenny had been on the _Elite_ for five years. In all that time, they’d cleverly avoided the traps of the Federation, slipping their net time and time again to avoid being recaptured as deserters of the imperial Federation, while making a name for themselves as renowned bounty hunters. But the ship had never withstood a broadside attack from an _imperial warfleet_ before. That was because it wouldn’t survive the attack.

He gritted his teeth and chased Ibushi down to his ship, the _Golden Star_. Ibushi was already inside, the sliding door left open in his haste. He was keying co-ordinates into the mainframe. Kenny banged his fist against the wall of the ship. “Did you do this?” he demanded.

Ibushi turned and glanced at him. “Me? No. I’m no Federation stooge.” He returned to keying in numbers.

Kenny grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. “Who the fuck is responsible for this?” he screamed. His ship was going down in flames around him. Multiple alarm systems rang out in warning.

Ibushi cocked his head. “Your friend?”

He was referring to Cody. Kenny gritted his teeth and cursed to himself. It wouldn’t be the first time Cody had tried to play the Federation and been burned. Kenny saw now how Cody had attempted to take over the ship to triumphantly present it to the Federation. But he’d failed to realise the Federation only allied with other organisations long enough to destroy them from the inside and cannibalise their remains. Kenny cursed the man’s stupidity.

“Hold on to something.” Ibushi turned back to the monitor.

Kenny stared at the back of his head. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m getting out of here.”

Kenny’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you, really?”

Ibushi grinned sharply back at him, eyes practically glowing in the dark. “I’m a Jedi.”

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Kenny Omega watched, expressionless, as flames erupted in the hangar bay, alarms shrieked, and a tide of Federation white-uniformed stormtroopers flowed into the embattled remains of the ship.

He turned back. “You really think you can get out of here?”

Ibushi seized the controls of his ship and a wicked expression appeared on his features. “Just watch me.” He initiated the launch mechanisms. Kenny stepped back, feeling the ship groan and vibrate as all the doors snapped shut and the engine fired. Then they were blasting up into the open holder entrance left by the invading stormtroopers.

“Watch out!” Kenny hissed. “There’s tons of fighter jets coming from that fleet of warships. They’ll spot us—“ Before he could speak further, enemy fire from a series of wickedly fast TIE fighters rocked the ship. Kenny barely saved himself from crashing into a wall.

“Don’t look so scared,” Ibushi said with a smirk. “I’ve never lost in a space fight, and I don’t intend to start today.”

“There’s at least twenty TIE fighters out there, the Imperial army’s most trained pilots, all aiming their blasters right at us!” Kenny yelled. “We don’t even have a hope of escape!”

Ibushi only chuckled darkly and sent the spacecraft barrelling forward. Kenny swore and threw himself into the co-pilot’s chair. “Where the heck are your blasters?”

“Right-hand panel.” Ibushi’s voice was low in concentration. The _Golden Star_ dodged blasts high and low, artillery barely missing . The ship executed a sickening backwards roll. Kenny held tight into the arms of his seat and cursed wildly.

“This is fun!” Ibushi exclaimed, jerking the controls wildly.

“Do you have a death wish?!” Kenny finally got a grip on the extended blaster controls and got them swung around and trained on the TIE fighters coming at them from all directions.

“Focus on the ones in the back, I’ll get around the ones in front.” Ibushi’s eyes were trained on viewer outside, his expression intent.

“Alrighty.” Kenny grinned. If he was going to die, this was how he’d much rather go: blasting a bunch of Federation lackeys into smithereens. He began rattling off attacks. Every single one hit. “That’s right, baby!”

Ibushi, impressed despite himself, raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? Haven’t you ever seen an expert marksman before?” Kenny slammed a phaser blast into a cluster of TIE fighters that were attempting to execute a triple blast on the hull of a ship. They went down in a satisfying explosion.

Ibushi merely smirked and nosed the ship through the gaps in a web of TIE fighters up ahead. Kenny could practically feel the enemy troopers getting increasingly desperate, realising that the _Golden Star_ was about to race out of their reach. Their formations became more haphazard and the blasts were coming out from all directions, mostly well off target.

Ibushi gave a low, satisfied chuckle that zinged straight down Kenny’s spine.

He brought the ship into empty space. They entered hyperspace and disappeared from the battle scene.

For a moment, the beauty of cold empty void echoed like music from all around them. Then, they reappeared in a new section of empty space, in a peaceful and silent part of the system. Faraway stars twinkled in the viewfinder.

“Fucking hell.” Kenny ran a hand over his face.

Ibushi collapsed back against his seat, sweat beading its way down the lines of his neck. Kenny watched him pull apart the bindings around his right shoulder, revealing a long gash that went into muscle and flesh. Kenny swore quietly, but Ibushi simply rolled out of his pilot’s chair and came back a moment later with a fresh setting of wrappings. He sat down and re-wrapped his arm and shoulder prosaically, tightening the bindings with his teeth.

Kenny watched him work, the sight of blood and exposed flesh making him flinch internally. He felt that he should offer to help somehow, but chided himself. What was he going to do? Dress the man’s wounds? They were enemies, after all. A shared escape from a greater enemy didn’t change that.

He watched Ibushi get up again and disappear into the belly of the ship.

Kenny held a hand against the wall, observing his surroundings for the first time. Signs of habitation were everywhere, from the fighting gloves and light body armour hung up on the wall to the haphazard pile of hologames by the dashboard.

Kenny turned and stalked into the central hub. Three small doors led, he presumed, into a living area, while a ladder descended down below into what had to be the engine.

Kenny had seen with his own eyes Ibushi performing the kind of feats no mere mortal should have been able to do.

Yet everything about his humble little ship was painfully normal.

Kenny knew his face was on every imperial Wanted poster from here to the next galaxy. Any bounty hunter worth his salt would get a pretty penny for his capture.

But what had Ibushi said? He wasn’t ‘one of the Federation’s stooges.’

For some reason, Kenny wanted to believe him. He closed his eyes. His own stupid sense of fancy was going to get him into deep shit.

“I’m heading to a trading post on the outer belt.” Ibushi appeared behind him. Kenny turned to see him in the doorway, looking larger than life in the robes and long hair. “I need more medical supplies. And food.”

“Medical supplies?” Kenny frowned at him.

“My shoulder,” Ibushi said. Kenny could see now that he was holding himself stiffly.

“I see,” Kenny said flatly. “Well, I’ll be leaving at the next stop. Thanks for the ride.”

Ibushi, who’d been rubbing his eyes as if exhausted, smiled at him. “Don’t you want to stay on the ship?”

“Um,” Kenny said.

Ibushi cocked his head. “You have questions.”

“Of course I have questions,” Kenny spluttered. “Who the hell are you? How are you able to do those - those things?”

Ibushi smiled. “I can use the Force. You know, like a Jedi. Haven’t you ever seen a holofilm before?”

“The Force isn’t _real_ ,” Kenny hissed. “And there aren’t any Jedi. They all died out decades ago.”

The Force was the kid’s stuff, the stuff of rumours, legends, and cheesy old holofilms. The kind of holos Kenny had loved as a little kid, with costumes and exaggerated lines and getting the girl at the end.

That was before he’d grown up and realised it was all fake (and that it wasn’t just girls he was interested in). He knew what the world really was. The world wasn’t heroism, it was war. It wasn’t magic, it was kill or be killed. He was a loser born as a slave in a Federation-controlled system. And he wasn’t going to change the world. The next day, at sixteen years old, he’d joined the Federation’s army.

 _“Isn’t it?”_ Ibushi’s voice was loud and clear in Kenny’s head.

“Stop that,” Kenny swiped at the air ineffectually.

“Sorry,” Ibushi said. He cleared his throat. “I saw those holofilms too, as a child.” He smiled again. “It’s true that the Jedi are no more. I am merely an adventurer.”

“An adventurer,” Kenny repeated flatly. Ibushi grinned tiredly at him, exposing sharp teeth. “And what the hell would an adventurer want with me?”

 _“You feel it too,”_ Ibushi said.

Kenny glared at him.

Ibushi smiled. “Sorry. But you do know that you are strong in the Force, correct?” A look of concern came over his features when Kenny failed to respond. “Ah. I sensed that there was something… You didn’t respond when I called to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Kenny demanded.

Ibushi fixed him with a searching gaze. “Did you have a dream? Fire, flight, that kind of thing?”

“That was you?” Kenny hissed.

Ibushi nodded. “I reached out in the Force. A non-Force-sensitive person wouldn’t have noticed anything, but I felt you sense me clearly. But I sensed that you didn’t have the ability to speak back.”

Kenny shook his head wildly. “Look, this is just crazy. I’m not a - a freaking Force user, for Vader’s sake.”

“When you were a child, did you ever sense that you understood what people were feeling before they'd felt it themselves? Or that you knew where people located in a building without looking for them?”

Kenny flinched under Ibushi’s gaze, which was firmer than a physical grip. Of course those descriptions sounded familiar. "That doesn't prove—”

Ibushi surged forward. He was close enough that Kenny could feel his body heat. His eyes were intent on Kenny’s, and Kenny felt like he couldn’t move. “Did you feel like you had a power that could barely be contained?”

Kenny stared at him. “Every kid feels like that.”

Ibushi pulled away, shaking his head. Kenny was obscurely relieved for some reason. “Not everyone.”

Kenny folded his arms against his chest. “Even if I was _Force sensitive_ , why have I never been able to do all the things you can do? I can’t move things with my mind, or jump over people,” Kenny said bitterly. That would have been mighty handy in all the fights he’d been in over the years.

Ibushi shrugged. His hands were on the doorway, fiddling with the controls. “What if you were hiding yourself?”

“I didn’t even know anything had to be hidden!”

“Maybe some part of you knew you were safer hidden, not out in the open. When you have power, there are those that seek to control it.”

“Great.” Kenny glared at Ibushi. “And what’s to say I can trust you?”

Ibushi smiled at him. His gaze was mischievous and enticing. “Nothing.”

 

*

 

The _Golden Star_ was a small and neat spacecraft. It was shaped like a commercial spacecraft, though an old one, but extensive blue and gold modifications made it look significantly sleeker and faster. Metal ingots came out of the walls and floors. The multitude of mismatched buttons and screws on the captain’s control panel spoke of a long and determined modifications to the speed and controls of the craft as well.

The day after Kenny and Ibushi had made their daring escape from the Federation, which had mostly been spent in silence as the _Golden Star_ crossed millions of miles in space, Kenny watched Ibushi dig through a box at the bottom of the bed.

Kenny had insisted on accompanying Ibushi to the market town for supplies.

“But…” Ibushi had put his hands up. “Your clothes…”

Kenny looked down at his uniform, the black leather and hard steel accents. He'd had this uniform since the day he’d become captain of the _Elite_. He'd cared for it with all of his attention. It was as much a part of him as his own hair, his own face.

Kenny suddenly realised the ship was probably destroyed, its soldiers rounded up in Federation cells. _His ship._ He felt a pang of sadness, before squaring his shoulders. He’d lost everything before when he’d escaped the Federation’s ranks. He’d reinvented himself completely, even down to his name. He could no doubt survive this setback as well.

Ibushi handed him a jumper in an unexpected pink colour. And plain, blue worker pants. Kenny dressed himself, Ibushi departing politely without a word, in the quiet of Ibushi’s tiny bedroom. The objects on the shelf by his bed caught his eye. A tiny plant, a twine bracelet, an unfurled line of the wrappings he wore around his wrists and ankles. A pot of some unidentifiable grooming product.

Kenny had spent the night in the hold, accompanied by the sound of mechanical whirring, and the entangled paths of his own thoughts. He tried reaching out with the Force, expecting to - feel something. Hear something. Expecting to hear Ibushi’s buttery voice back in his head, and tensing at the expectation of it.

There was nothing, but the banging overhead of the engine.

Kenny realised he was staring at the unmade covers of the bed and thought suddenly of Ibushi having visitors in this bed. _Nocturnal visitors._ He flushed, dressing more rapidly, refusing to think any further on the topic of who might visit Ibushi’s bed.

He emerged and considered himself in the mirror. He didn't look like a warrior from a holofilm, the way Ibushi did. He looked like a poorly dressed commoner. But at least he didn't immediately look like a soldier. In the melting pot of an outdoor waste, he'd blend in like any other drifter.

Coming closer to the mirror, he put a hand to his hair. The quick, efficient shower he’d taken in Kota's tiny bathroom aboard the ship had made him sorely miss his special Transconian hair gel, which was the only thing that could tame his hair. Kenny's long blond strands, ordinarily gelled mercilessly into regulation order, were already curling at the ends. He felt… messy.

Kota reappeared in the doorway. He leaned against the doorframe and smiled at him.

“You really think I won’t be recognised?” Kenny asked quietly.

Ibushi folded his arms. “I don’t even recognise you from your wanted poster. You look… different in the poster. Kind of evil. And they got your hair all wrong.”

Kenny had seen copies of that poster, black and silver curls around a snarling grimace. He’d liked it. It made him look tough. He shrugged.

They walked side by side into the market town outside the outpost. Kenny was tense with the fear that Federation were lying in wait, about to fall on their heads at any moment. But they were completely undisturbed. The desert quickly gave way to bustling market stalls selling soups and stews. He followed Ibushi down winding alleyways and increasingly tall stone buildings. They ate a stew in front of an unassuming stall in silence. Kenny thought about escaping, disappearing into the crowd, as he watched Ibushi’s obvious relish at the food. What would be the point? He had to know more about the Force. He had no choice but to stay, until the opportunity came to do otherwise.

It was a good thing Kenny was excellent at biding his time.

Kenny watched the faces of the people and creatures flitting back and forth. Nobody paid either of them a bit of mind.

Kenny had been used to being on guard from the youngest age, always watching for threats and the possibility of violence. He’d grown up in the wastes of a backyard planet, then been a soldier for years in the Federation. Commanding attention wherever he could find it by phaser gun. To having masses flee on his approach, or stop and salute. Even in the _Elite_ , their bounty hunting ways had plunged him into a world of danger and violence. He’d never just… gone for a walk before.

It felt strange.

Ibushi was cheerfully biting on an apple as they walked. His arms and legs swung, a small knapsack of medical supplies dangling from one hand, and he looked bright and happy in the planet’s low light. He browsed the market stalls idly, picking up food every so often and carefully exchanging it for small tokens. There was an utter lack of urgency to his gait, as if he hadn’t been expertly fleeing a Federation war fleet not twenty-four hours before. Kenny watched him chatter away with a kid who was trying to sell him some small trinket.

"What about your friend?" said the kid.

Kenny glanced at the kid, who had the typical blue skin and large eyes of the planet's native citizens. "Er, no thank you. I don't like things without a use,” he said firmly.

"It has a use, dummy!" the kid protested, antennae stiffening in annoyance. "It's a token of affection." He ratted the delicate little chain up at Kenny.

Kenny glared at him. “Well, I don't need a - a token of affection.”

“Why, dontcha have any friends?” The kid demanded.

Ibushi hid a grin as he watched Kenny get into an argument with the kid. They bickered for a full ten minutes, Kenny demanding to know how the market town did business around here if this was how they treated their customers.

Kenny ended up finding out all sorts of interesting things about all the different kinds of customers who visited the planet, and the local tradition of a vow-making day which drew visitors from across the entire plain.The kid waved him goodbye and told him to come back when he wasn't a loser any more.

Ibushi nudged him with his shoulder as they wandered off. "I think you lost that argument."

Kenny rolled his eyes. "Stupid kid," he said nonchalantly. Inside, he was mildly disconcerted. That kid would never have spoken to him that way if he'd been in uniform. He would have quailed in horror, cringed out of sight. Troopers would have been shooting everywhere. The Federation didn't care about bystanders. Neither had the hunters aboard the _Elite_.

Instead the kid had treated Kenny like any ordinary person. It had been....

Refreshing.

Ibushi appeared to sense the direction of his thoughts. “Your ship is no more. You're free to do as you please."

Kenny pictured the ship floating in fragments in cold space, little more than space dust now. He lifted his head and glared at Ibushi, whose focus was radiating towards him. “Don’t read my thoughts.”

Ibushi shrugged. “You need to guard them better, then. You were practically broadcasting them to me.”

Kenny bristled. “How do I guard them, then?”

“Can’t you…” Ibushi circled a hand in the air. “Just guard them?”

“No! That’s the shittiest advice I’ve ever heard,” Kenny blustered.

“I’m sorry,” Ibushi said. “No one ever taught me how. So I don’t know how to explain it.”

Kenny watched Ibushi lapse into a comfortable silence as they slipped out of the main thoroughfare, crowded with bodies. Now that he was concentrating, he felt himself able to reach out feelers into his surroundings. He could hear voices all around him. With dawning discomfort, Kenny realised he was catching the running thoughts of the people he passed by. An Abraxian on the opposite side of the street was worrying loudly about the price of fuel. A couple at the stall behind were having a fight, each thinking unflattering thoughts about the other. A tall native swayed back and forth as he dodged a small vehicle, thinking of how his brother had died in a road accident and he had better be careful…

“Kenny.” Ibushi’s calm voice interrupted his thoughts. Kenny flinched. Ibushi had held up a hand and Kenny shivered. He’d thought Ibushi was going to touch his face for a second. But Ibushi merely brushed his shoulder briefly. “You’re getting lost.”

“How do you deal with it?” Kenny said suddenly, as the voices around him seemed to only increase. Suddenly he could barely hear his own thoughts.

Ibushi glanced at him calmly. “Let’s go somewhere more quiet.” Kenny followed him off the crowded main road and into a little side alley, dust gathering around their feet. In the gathering late afternoon, only a little light slipped in the gap between the two walls, casting Ibushi’s face into shadow. The line of his cheekbones seemed sharp enough to cut.

They stared at each other as everything went silent in Kenny’s head. Kenny found it eerie how they were exactly the same height. It allowed this stranger to look deeply into his eyes - too deeply. He could see things in there that no one else had before. Ibushi was looking right into him. Kenny looked away. He was afraid of what Ibushi might find.

“Better?” Ibushi had a wry smile on his face.

“Does it ever get better?” Kenny had a cold sweat on his head. He slumped against the wall.

“You can learn to control it.” Ibushi said.

“Can I turn it back off again?” Kenny smirked queasily. “I’m not sure this Force thing is everything is made out to be.”

Ibushi smiled sadly. “I don’t know if you can turn it off. But I don’t think so.”

Kenny rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. A wave of disappointment enveloped him. Some intuition prickled his senses. “Are you going to train me?”

Their eyes met solemnly. Ibushi’s expression was deeply thoughtful. “If you’d like, then yes.”

“And now I have to sign up to your special Jedi code of honour, or something? Cause I’m not much for honour.”

To Kenny’s surprise, Ibushi reached for him and tugged a piece of Kenny’s hair. It sprang back into place. Kenny flushed, realising how wild he probably looked. Ibushi shook his head ruefully. “You’re funny.”

“I’m not.” Kenny grinned despite himself. He was hyper-aware of Ibushi’s hand falling back to his side.

He thought to himself that he liked the look of Ibushi’s smile. He quickly tucked that thought away before the other man sensed it.

“There is no code of honour,” Ibushi said. “It’s just me.”

They returned to the ship. Kenny caught a glimpse of himself in the large steel plates on the side of the hull. He blanched at the sight that greeted him. He looked completely unrecognisable. His hair was halo of big fat curls, puffing up like a creature with a mind of its own. His skin was flushed and pink like the ridiculous sweater he was wearing. Even his posture was easy, no longer the ramrod-straight military figure he’d been before. Ibushi was right. He looked different.

Following Ibushi up the ramp, Kenny thought that he felt different, too.

 


	3. Chapter 3

“What if I attack you in your sleep?”

“I can fight you off.”

“What if I steal the ship away while you’re not looking?”

“I don’t think you’re going to do that.”

“Are you reading my mind right now?” Kenny squeaked.

Ibushi smirked at him. They’d landed in an empty patch of forest. The planet’s high suns burned high in the sky, and a fresh dew drenched the leaves of the trees. Ibushi leaned back against a trunk. “I just know when to trust people, alright? _Are_ you going to steal my ship?”

Kenny folded his arms and came to a stop in the centre of the clearing. “No. You said you were going to train me.” He eyed their surroundings dubiously.

Ibushi clapped his hands together. “So let’s begin.”

Kenny spent a frustrating few hours staring at a single leaf in his hand. Ibushi told him to try and feel the flow of the Force moving through the air around them. “So you want me to move the leaf?” Kenny said, perplexed.

“No, I want you to feel the Force. The Force isn’t a mechanism that you control. The Force is an energy that flows through all living things.”

“This feels a lot like a holofilm right now,” Kenny sighed. “What are you going to say next, ‘may the Force be with you’?”

Ibushi winked. “They don’t get everything wrong in the holos, you know.”

Kenny blushed and went back to staring at the leaf, which trembled in his hand.

By the time the one of the suns was making its descent, Kenny was surprised to see the leaf gently lifting. He looked up in excitement to show Ibushi, who grinned.

“Right, I’m bored of staring at this leaf. I want you to show me what you can do,” Kenny demanded.

Ibushi cocked his head. A streak of mud covered his one cheek. He’d gone for a wander, telling Kenny to focus on the lead but quickly becoming bored of watching him, and had only just returned. “We could spar, if you like? You have fight training, correct?”

“Did you read my mind to figure that out?” Kenny let the leaf float out of his hand and stood up, brushing the dew from his unfamiliar clothes.

Ibushi’s chuckle was low and thick like honey, but he didn’t reply.

“I was in the imperial army, so yes,” Kenny said with a roll of his eyes. “I was top of my class in training, actually.” He met Ibushi’s eyes.

They sparred under the green trees. Ibushi didn’t look super strong but he was incredibly agile. Kenny began to feel the swiftness of Ibushi’s intended attacks and attempt to dodge his strikes before they landed. It was like seeing the ghost of an action before it happened. But Ibushi was so fast that Kenny could barely keep up, and he seemed to be able to see every single attack Kenny thought of before he even had a chance to execute it. Kenny gave up after the fifth time Ibushi leapt right over one of his punches and back-flipped out of reach. “How the hell are you able to… flip around like that?” he demanded.

“I’ve always been able to, since I was a child,” Ibushi said, landing elegantly back on his feet.

Kenny tried to copy a manoeuvre Ibushi had just executed, which involved running up the side of the broadest tree trunk and flipping backwards. He flipped with a grunt and landed awkwardly in the soft grass with an earth-rattling thump. He groaned.

Ibushi covered his smile with his hands. “That wasn’t so bad for a first attempt.” He crouched over Kenny’s fallen form and extended a hand. Kenny hesitated and took it. Ibushi’s hand was strong, like the rest of him, and his grip was like steel. Kenny felt the extend of his strength when Ibushi pulled him effortlessly to his feet. Ibushi patted him absent-mindedly on the back, the flat of his palm sliding across muscle. Kenny stiffened.

“We should clean up,” Ibushi said, his hand falling from Kenny’s back without comment. He peered up into the sky. A blue moon was beginning to rise. The blue light highlighted the regal planes of his face and the bow of his lips.

A chill was settling into the air. Kenny shivered. He looked down at himself and realised his borrowed clothes were covered in leaves, grass, and mud. The streak of mud on Ibushi’s face was slowly drying.

They made their way back to the ship slowly. Kenny found himself making conversation. “Yeah, the Federation really screwed over my planet. The worst part is that we were taught to admire and love the Federation when they’d been the one to bring us to our knees. It was only when I joined the army that I realised I’d been fed a pack of lies.” Kenny had never talked so freely about his past before. Ibushi listened quietly and attentively. Kenny talked about his childhood, of the army. “I was never going to go far in the Federation. Hell, they tried to put me in the stormtrooper program. Me! Can you imagine this beautiful face hidden by a helmet?”

“Where’s this beautiful face you speak of?” Ibushi smirked at him.

“Ha ha.”

 

*

 

Over the following weeks Kenny learned all of the basic Force training moves. Ibushi was an easily-distracted teacher, but he loved to race and fight and jump off things, and he would roam from planet to planet having crazy adventures, occasionally saving besieged villages or crime-ridden towns from the bandits and bounty hunters who roamed this far into the Outer Rim. Kenny had plenty of opportunities to learn. In fact, he found himself discovering things he’d never even known existed in the entire system.

They watched two fluffy, round-bodied birds rubbing their tiny wings together and chirping on a tree branch.

“What are they?”

“Tringgals. They mate for life with a member of their own gender. Isn’t that cute?”

“It’s not cute,” Kenny said, flushing, because he knew Ibushi had already read his thoughts about how cute he thought it was. Ibushi looked up at him and smiled slightly.

Kenny was becoming familiar with the feeling of the barest touch of Ibushi’s mind against his own, and it was almost comforting. It felt as though they were always connected, even though they sometimes went days without talking, because Ibushi maintained a monk-like silence, sometimes for days, lost in thought, playing on his strange unreadable hologames, or ‘meditating in the Force’ (which looked, to Kenny, a lot like he was taking an all-day nap).

“Your thoughts are so clear to me,” Ibushi said, not for the first time, glancing over as if Kenny had mentioned it out loud.

“I’m not doing anything,” Kenny said, fidgeting. He hoped Ibushi hadn’t heard his whole idiotic mental spiel about how connected he thought they were. He felt his face going red, forcing himself to think about something else.

When Ibushi could be induced to speak, it was usually about the Force. It was the one topic he loved to talk about endlessly. “Is that normal? Between Force users?” Kenny prompted, hoping for Ibushi to be drawn into a lecture so he wouldn’t notice the embarrassment radiating from Kenny’s mind like a red sun.

Ibushi shook his head. “I’ve never felt someone’s thoughts like that before. Not so clearly, without even trying. And you can hear me, can’t you?”

Kenny shrugged. “Only when you send me a message specifically.”

 _“Like this?”_ A light danced in Ibushi’s eyes.

Kenny huffed a sigh. _“Yeah, like that.”_

 _“It feels good.”_ Ibushi smirked.

Kenny didn’t hear this in words, exactly, just the sensation of rightness that flooded through their mental connection. He blinked and looked away in a hurry. “What’s this?” he said, pulling something out of Ibushi’s knapsack.

It was a black, cylindrical object. Kenny flicked the switch, then nearly dropped the buzzing lightsaber it produced. It was a brilliant blue colour. It lay sizzling on the ground while Kenny stared at it, open-mouthed.

“…Careful,” Ibushi said with a straight face.

“Can I try it?” Kenny said, excitedly. He picked the lightsaber up gingerly and directed it at a tree. It left a burning scorch and the smell of ozone filled the air.

“Leave that tree alone,” Ibushi said distractedly. “You can have it, if you like. I don’t fight with a saber any more. But you would need to find your own crystal for it to be truly yours.”

Kenny stared at him in elation. “Show me how to use it.”

“I don’t have another one for you to use anyway.” Ibushi shrugged, humouring him. “We could use sticks?”

They sparred with long, straight sticks from the dusty maintenance cupboard. Kenny lost every round but he thought he put up a good fight. “You have good instincts,” Ibushi said, cocking his head.

“Thanks.” Kenny blushed. He could tell Ibushi had enjoyed the fight. His eyes were bright with the intent that made Kenny the absolute centre of his attention. Kenny felt the blood thrumming in his veins. He imagined what it would be like if they had real lightsabers: the danger and the beauty and the power of it.

They passed another night in comfortable silence. Ibushi was towelling his wet hair, and Kenny had been watching him out of the corner of his eye and enjoying the gentle feedback from Ibushi that he didn’t mind being watched. He’d just got out of the shower, and was wearing a simple pair of loose pants slung low on his slim hips. The muscles in his chest and back bulged while his damp skin glowed like silk. Kenny was supposed to be practising emptying his mind for meditation in the Force. He’d told himself that the distraction was just a challenge. Amusement danced in Ibushi’s feedback.

“I want to find a kyber crystal,” Kenny announced, giving up on the meditation.

“They’re extremely rare,” Ibushi said.

“But you know where I can search for one, right?”

Ibushi chewed his lip. “There’s a cave system on Akh-Anthil. There might not be anything there, but that’s where we should begin searching.”

“Yes!” Kenny yelled.

Ibushi laughed and dug around in his cupboards for a fresh shirt. He pulled it on, not noticing Kenny watching the muscles in his back and waist flexing as he bent over.

Kenny had been sleeping in the hold, wrapped up in a sleeping bag and ensconced warmly in the comforting thrum of the engine, wearing borrowed, soft clothes. It was nothing special, but it was comfortable. More comfortable than the bleak enslaved existence of his home planet, or the painful, lonely conditions of the Federation academy. He closed his eyes and fell asleep before the unwelcome memories overtook him.

 

*

 

Kenny produced a bunch of equipment with him and a snack. Ibushi grinned at him. “All that stuff! You don’t need it. It’s not far.”

“I don’t really… like caves,” Kenny admitted. “The dark, you know?”

“You don’t need light if you have the Force,” Ibushi said calmly, in the slow tones of a mystic.

Kenny rolled his eyes. Ibushi slapped his shoulder. Kenny shoved him back, and Ibushi was forced to let go and catch himself before he went careening into the cave wall.

They chuckled at each other. The day felt promising as they made good progress into the cave systems. “You see, the tunnels curve up and up, and the higher you get the more chance there is of finding something.” Ibushi pointed up into the glittering dark cave roof, which sounded like it was full of skittering things. Kenny shuddered. Ibushi nudged his shoulder.

Kenny was noticing that, recently, he didn’t mind when Ibushi reached out with these careful, gentle touches. Ibushi had been extending the hand of friendship, and Kenny found himself beginning to relax around him.

“Follow the sensations,” Ibushi reminded him before they split up.

“Unhelpful!” Kenny sing-songed back. Soon he was alone in the dark cave. Except he wasn’t quite alone. Ibushi’s feedback was a floating light somewhere out in the dark. Nodding, he turned and went in the other direction. The tunnel sloped steeply upwards before curving to the right.

Kenny kept a sharp eye on the surfaces around him. He resolved to look for any unusual formations or colours in the rock face. Kyber crystals were supposed to be brilliant and clear. All he could see so far from the light of his lamp were grey, splintered rock faces of basalt and granite, grooved with newer layers of molten rock.

Kenny looked up with a frown. He turned and followed a narrow section of tunnels which he’d initially ignored. The tunnels narrowed, then widened, leading out into fresher air and dim light, and finally into the open. Kenny gingerly stepped out onto the open ledge. They were high above where they’d started. A reddish alien sun beat wickedly overhead. Kenny emerged onto the rock face and craned his neck over the cliff side, where he could see the _Golden Star_ twinkling down below. The cliff would have been scalable, but treacherous. Kenny wasn’t great with heights to begin with, so he was relieved they’d taken the safer option of the tunnels.

He stepped back from the edge before dizziness overtook him.

Something compelled him to approach the wall of rock beside the cave entrance.

A certain patch of rocks was no different to the rocks around it except one facet of the rock face was glowing in the sun. A clear colourless crystal embedded deep into the cave. There it was. Kenny felt a shift in the flow of the Force around it.

He tried to prise the crystal out of the rock face as carefully as he could, but the surface was cutting and dusty under his fingers, and the crystal didn’t budge. Kenny swore and set down the pack that held the his supplies and the empty lightsaber hilt to get a better purchase on the rock. He nearly fell down and cracked his head in the process, but finally he got the crystal free.

Just when he was holding it up to the light, Kenny’s instincts rang out. He ducked. The familiar buzz and the smell of static preceded the screech of a weapon slicing the rock above him. Kenny swung out of the way and faced the direction of the attack.

A man stood opposite him holding a gleaming green lightsaber.

Kenny had never seen another lightsaber before and, for a moment, he was transfixed. The man was wearing a mask with two prominent eye-holes. He was clad all in black and a puff of brown hair trailed from his high ponytail. The man lunged in for another vicious attack. Kenny dove for the pack with the saber inside. His hand scrabbled around inside for the cold steel, the other clutching the fresh kyber crystal. Kenny’s hands trembled and he cursed as he tried to fit the crystal into the saber. Then, miraculously, the crystal slid inside. His thumb flicked the switch and he turned just in time to counter the pulsing green lightsaber with the shining blue energy of his own. Kenny marvelled at the colour. It was almost the same colour as Ibushi’s, but dark and brooding where Ibushi’s had been light and clear.

The mysterious assailant pressed against Kenny’s parry with overwhelming strength. Behind the mask, a pair of eyes narrowed.

Kenny ducked out of the way of another swing and brought his saber up. The only way to defend himself would be to attack. There was no other option. He and the invader circled each other, breaths going fast. Then the invader let loose a flurry of slashes and strikes, sparks flying and the buzz of electrostatic screeching as their lightsabers blocked each other over and over. As fiercely as their weapons fought, their minds were also in a flurry of battle. Kenny parried strikes coming from all angles, feeling the precarious guards in his head tumbling down at this warrior’s expert attack.

Who the hell _was_ this guy? Kenny had no way of knowing.

 _“Kenny!”_ Ibushi’s voice echoed from inside the cave system. The invader paused, body language signalling wariness, and Kenny used the distraction to bolt back into the caves, turning a corner, following his sense of Ibushi’s feedback to make his way through the twisting and winding tunnels. The caves were dark apart from the eerie glow of the lightsaber. Ibushi ran from the other direction and they nearly collided into each other in the darkness. Ibushi grabbed his upper arms and span him around. “Are you okay?” Kenny froze, the lightsaber dangling from one hand.

“I managed to hold him off,” Kenny gasped, sweat dripping into his eyes. His nostrils were filled with the smell of metallic static and his muscles were zinging with adrenaline.

“Let me take care of this,” Ibushi said firmly, reaching for Kenny’s hand.

Kenny flinched away. “I was already taking care of it.”

Ibushi frowned. “Kenny—”

“There was a kyber crystal in the rock. I got it first but I think the guy - I didn’t see his face - is after it, too.” Kenny said urgently. “He has a lightsaber of his own.” Ibushi swore under his breath. Kenny searched his face for answers. Ibushi appeared troubled.

Before Kenny could say anything further, Ibushi’s eyes were widening and he was leaping to pull Kenny out of the way as the mysterious attacker charged with his lightsaber raised and fell upon them.

“Get back, Kenny!”

“I can do this!” Kenny felt a tug of possessiveness towards his new kyber crystal, one that felt as though he’d imprinted it with his very soul.

“Give me the damn saber!” Ibushi yelled, grabbing his wrist. They turned simultaneously when the attacker rushed at them. Ibushi grabbed ahold of the hilt with his other hand, and suddenly they were both parrying the strike together, hands wrapping around each other. Their combined strength sent the attacker flying. The lightsaber was suddenly buzzing loudly. It glowed in the dark cave, throwing light all over and shining into their stunned faces.

_“What’s happening?”_

_“I don’t know. But… Don’t let go.”_ Even Ibushi’s mental voice was breathless. Kenny held on harder. He glanced across at Ibushi’s eyes, which were bright and awed in the glare of the saber.

They both watched as the saber glowed bright white and then turned a brilliant gold.

_“Can… can lightsabers do that?”_

Ibushi squeezed his hand. _“I think it’s something we’re doing together.”_

Kenny suddenly felt stronger than he ever had before. It felt like they could beat anything, anyone. The attacker got to his feet and growled, but Ibushi roared and they rushed him as one. The attack’s attempted parry - his green lightsaber pale in the light of their gold one - collapsed and he was thrown back against the rocks. He slid to the ground and didn’t move.

Ibushi pulled away from Kenny, making him lose his balance, and stood over the man’s unconscious body. He tore the mask off his face, and cursed.

“Who is he?” Kenny’s mind was spinning. Lightsabers, near-death fights, the strange unison they’d achieved to win the fight - it was all hitting him at once. He sank to his knees.

Ibushi turned his dark eyes in Kenny’s direction. “I’ll let him tell you himself,” he said stonily, and kicked the man in the shoulder. The man coughed and spluttered. The face which looked up at them both was old, heavily tanned and lined, with watchful eyes. His ponytail of shaggy hair was covered in a layer of dust.

He sat up slowly and calmly, his posture displaying arrogance even in defeat.

“I’m Hiroshi Tanahashi,” he boomed. “The leader of the New Jedi.” 

 


	4. Chapter 4

“The _New_ Jedi? What does that mean, exactly? Hey, Ibushi, where are you going?”

Kota ignored Kenny’s yelp of surprise and stalked back out of the Akh-Anthil cave system. He marched back out into the sunlight. Even from above the rock face, he could feel the intense glow and murmur of the kyber crystals forming and growing within the rocks. He laid a hand on one of the rock faces and closed his eyes.

“You know, you didn’t used to be a coward,” rang out Tanahashi’s voice.

Kota turned and looked up. Tanahashi was crouched on the highest rock in the area. He didn’t reply. Kenny stumbled out of the tunnels, one hand clumsily holding the lightsaber hilt. He gawped up at Tanahashi, his feedback indicating that he was wondering how the hell Tanahashi had gotten up there.

 _Because they’ve been coming here to look for kyber crystals for years, they know every tunnel and cave in this place,_ Kota thought.

But he guarded his thoughts from Kenny, who glanced at him in surprise at the mild wash of irritation Kota had projected at Tanahashi’s words. Kenny’s eyes were very blue in the punishing sunlight. His hair was damp with sweat from the fight. The fight where Tanahashi had attacked him for no good reason. Kenny took a step closer as concern coloured his feedback. Concern for Kota. Kota tried to maintain his stern expression but Kenny held up the lightsaber hilt.

A static of electricity passed between them when their hands touched. They stared meaningfully at each other. Kenny’s feedback was thrumming with questions, nervousness, curiosity, and excitement.

Kota pocketed the saber. He could admit to himself that what had happened with the lightsaber turning golden had been something he could barely even describe to himself. It had felt - it had felt as if their two souls had combined into one. Checking Kenny’s feedback again, he could tell Kenny was trying to figure out how best to even put it into words.

Tanahashi cocked his head as he watched this scene play out. “You know, there was a time when you looked up to me as your god, Ibushi.”

Kota smiled to himself. “Those days are long past.”

Tanahashi’s face creased in irritation.

Kenny was looking back and forth between them, his expression nervous. “What’s the New Jedi?”

“You haven’t told him?” Tanahashi’s voice became sharp. “But he’s strong in the Force.”

“Oh, I love being talked about like I’m not here,” Kenny said flatly.

“The New Jedi is a temple of warriors which arose to protect the sacred knowledge of the Force after the Dark Ages,” Tanahashi boomed dramatically.

“The what?” Kenny said.

“I don’t need to be here for this,” Kota said. The old restlessness urge to leave threatened to overtake him. “Listen to whatever you want,” he threw over his shoulder.

“Ibushi, wait—“ Kenny said.

But Kota had already leaping his way across the cliff face to the safe haven of the _Golden Star_ below.

 

*

 

Outside the plate glass window, a boiling red sun set on Akh-Anthil.

Kota sat in the pilot’s chair and ran a hand across the dashboard.

He thought about taking off.

Tanahashi could have another recruit for his little group, the so-called New Jedi, and Kota could be free again.

He thought about the years he’d spent alone. How good it was to be free after the constrictions and frustration of the New Jedi life. He could go wherever he pleased, speak to whomever he pleased, and do whatever he pleased.

Kota was used to his solitude. And he enjoyed it.

The last few weeks had been anything but that. From following a beacon within the Force to discovering Kenny, bravado worn like a shield over his vulnerable insides, who didn’t even recognise his own powers.

How unguarded his mind had been, and how Kota had seen everything - the curiosity, the fear, the Light within - in a single flash.

It had been strange to have Kenny around, all the time. Not just aboard the _Golden Star_ but in Kota’s mind as well. It was so easily to speak to him within the Force that Kota did it without thinking. He spent a lot of time thinking about the content of Kenny’s character.

Kenny was a strange man. He was curious about things Kota had never thought twice about. He thought of himself as a supremely bad person, even though he was kind to strangers. He thought the only thing that made him worthwhile was the power he held, and that belief had driven him to rise up the ranks of the _Elite_ , and now it drove him to get stronger in the Force. He was a man who tried to keep secrets, but had every emotion written clearly across his face.

Kota sat back in his pilot’s chair and closed his eyes. The thrumming of the engine was comforting. This ship was the only place that had felt like home for a very long time.

Kenny had disrupted his ascetic existence like a match in oil.

Kota could leave right now. He’d be free to go back to his carefree wandering. Not being responsible for anyone else. Not being attached to anyone else, like he’d always preferred.

It would be easy.

He remembered the co-ordinates to the Outer Rim planets on the other side of the system and his fingers brushed the keys.

Kota glanced down and drew the lightsaber hilt out of his robes. He flicked on the switch. The lighsaber buzzed a fierce indigo blue. All trace of the golden light was gone, but Kota could feel it waiting there, a hidden potential, under the surface.

He pocketed the hilt and turned his attention to the view outside.

*

 

Kota was still curled up in the pilot’s chair when Kenny appeared. The third of Akh-Anthil’s faint blue moons was high in the sky. Kenny’s expression was sober.

"He told me everything.” Kenny trudged inside, his steps uncertain. He glanced over at Kota, concern and something else deeper underlying it on his face. “About the New Jedi. Said I was strong in the Force and they could train me to great power and renown.”

Kota held back from going any deeper into Kenny’s feedback, wondering if it would be unwelcome. The sudden tension between them was sharp. He'd existed like a sunken stone in Kenny’s mind for so many weeks now that it felt unnatural to hold back.

Kota sensed that Tanahashi had left long ago, and that Kenny had been slow to return, doubt in his thoughts.

"He didn't tell you everything," Kota said. His voice was hoarse. "They never do."

“You didn’t tell me anything.” Betrayal clouded Kenny’s feedback. _Idiot_ , he was thinking to himself. _You should never have trusted him._

“I couldn’t,” Kota snapped. “A large organisation promising you power and glory? You would have gone straight to them! It’s all you know.” He bit his lip before he said anything more.

An ugly silence filled the ship.

"You don't know me," Kenny hissed.

"I'm the _only_ one who knows you,” Kota bit out.

They stared at each other. Kenny’s feedback was colouring bright with embarrassment. The words echoed between them.

_I’m the only one who knows you._

Kenny paced the hold. “Why are you so intent on avoiding them?” The circular cockpit of the _Golden Star_ had never felt so constricting to Kota, who leaned back, teeth gritted. “Tanahashi said you were the most promising warrior they had.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kota said darkly.

Kenny’s uncertainty turned rapidly into anger. “He asked me to join them.”

“Go, then.” Kota folded his arms and didn’t look at Kenny.

Kenny was very still and very silent for a long moment. “Do you actually want me to go?”

Kota stared at his hands. He watched them reach into his robes and withdraw the metal hilt of the lightsaber. He looked up at Kenny.

Kenny stared at him, his shoulders slumped, his expression uncertain, his eyes nearly grey in the low light.

Kota stood up and stood before him. He cocked his head. “Well, Kenny, you are _very_ annoying.”

They grinned slowly at each other.

Kenny sighed and shook his head. “I see why you left the New Jedi now. They couldn’t deal with your weirdness.”

“Weirdness?” Kota strode forward and handed Kenny the lightsaber. “I’m not the one with that hair.”

“Hey. Too far.” Kenny smiled ruefully down at the lightsaber. It was warm in his hand.

Kota felt a sudden pride swell in him. He reached forward and folded Kenny’s fingers around the hilt and wrapped his own hands around Kenny’s. “It’s yours now. Your crystal. Your saber.”

Kenny was blushing, a creeping flush that went up his neck. His head was bowed. His hands were warm in Kota’s.

Kota leaned close and studied Kenny’s sweet, warm face. The stubble growing into his cheeks, making him look rough and wild, and the soft jut of his chin around his mobile mouth.

Kota wanted to kiss him, badly. He settled for reaching over and tugging a strand of Kenny’s corkscrew hair. Kenny grinned despite himself, skin crinkling around the eyes.

Kota jumped in surprise when Kenny flung his strong arms around him. He relaxed, patting the large expanse of Kenny’s warm back. He closed his eyes for a second and breathed in the smell of Kenny’s skin.

Kenny pulled away. His eyes were bright.

“It’s not just mine. It’s ours.”

 

*

 

“Kota.”

“Mm.”

“Wake up.”

“Leave me alone.” Kota rolled over onto his front and pulled the blanket over his head.

The bed groaned from the weight of Kenny sitting on the edge of the mattress. “How are you always this grumpy in the morning?”

“Lack of… nat’ral light.” Kota hummed when Kenny’s feedback brushed his own.

It had been months since Tanahashi’s visit, which had only spurred Kenny to grow stronger in the Force. Kenny was getting increasingly comfortable using the Force for the slightest query these days. The touch of his mind felt like his fingers very gently brushing Kota’s hair.

“I landed the ship an hour ago. Come and get some sunlight if you like. The Antios 2 star’s just rising over the tops of the trees.” Kenny’s scratchy voice was affectionate.

“Go without me.” Kota pressed his face deeper into the pillow, feeling a headache coming on. He had barely slept all night. Kenny sensed this and a crescent of sympathy rose within him. He pressed a cool hand to the back of Kota’s neck.

Kota felt himself want to grip Kenny’s wrist, pull him into the bed and curl up beside him. He wanted a simple comfort that he knew he wasn’t allowed to have.

Kota sensed that Kenny felt an attraction, but that he tamped down the feelings every time they arose. He still thought that he’d successfully hidden them, and that Kota hadn’t noticed. _So what if he’s beautiful. It’s not weird to notice that. Anyone would notice that. Fuck, he’s looking at me again._ Kota would carefully look away. Beginning it all again.

Kota shut his eyes. Kenny squeezed his neck briefly and, eventually, departed.

 

*

 

Some nights Kota had terrible dreams. Some of them were from his own past but some of them seemed to be someone else’s memories. Someone else’s parents, someone else’s life. It hadn’t been _him_ who’d done all those terrible things, had it?

He got up and wandered back to the cockpit. Sometimes when he’d been younger and the ship was brand new and unfamiliar, he’d used to sleep curled up in the big pilot’s chair. The cracked leather and the hum of buttons and machinery and the view of the darkness outside was strangely comforting.

He still did that sometimes, when he couldn’t sleep.

He poked his head into the engine hanger bay. Kenny’s curly head stuck out of the sleeping bag. His feedback indicated deep, calm sleep. Kota allowed himself to briefly brush Kenny’s mind, enough to experience a moment of that calmness for himself.

He drew back before it disturbed Kenny enough to wake him.

Kota went to the cockpit and curled up in the pilot’s chair.

Hours later, Kenny was gently shaking him awake. “Couldn’t sleep, bud?”

Kota jumped in surprise and stared at him for a second before looking around. “Shit,” he muttered.

Kenny smiled tiredly. He looked as though he’d only woken up himself, his hair standing out from his head as if he’d been electrocuted. Kota reached for it without thinking and tugged on it. Kenny’s smile faded. “Looks like you fell asleep,” he murmured.

“Looks like it,” Kota sighed. His thoughts felt like sludge and his eyes hurt from the lights in the cockpit.

“Bad dreams?” Kenny rubbed his shoulders. Kota let his eyes fall closed. “I could feel you all the way from the engine room.”

Kota’s eyes opened. “I didn’t want you to see that.” The images from his dreams were still behind his eyelids, making him flinch. The idea that he’d projected them all over the ship in his sleep, inadvertently waking Kenny, disturbed him. “Sorry.”

Kenny squeezed his shoulder. Kota leaned into his touch. “Anything you need, just tell me.”

Kota watched Kenny bustle about in the ship. _Not anything,_ he thought. _I need you to kiss me._

They’d never once spoken about the New Jedi again since they’d left Akh-Anthil.

But Kota thought about it every day. He rubbed his eyes and dismissed his anxious thoughts, letting his eyes fall closed again.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Kota awoke in bed to find that it was already evening. His mind was somewhat refreshed after a short, but deep sleep. He couldn’t sense Kenny anywhere within the ship, which was still where he’d landed it the day before.

He emerged from the _Golden Star_ , rubbing his eyes. The moonlight was bright, and the forest clearing they’d landed in was alive with the sound of life. But Kenny was nowhere to be found.

There was a sound of splashing from the creek, and a tell-tale collection of discarded boulders and giant tree trunks, led Kota to Kenny.

Kenny was standing knee deep in the running water, soaked to the skin. He’d taken off his shirt at some point, and his broad chest was drenched. He rubbed the water through his hair and the droplets rippled down his back and thighs.

Kota watched him, unseen, from a distance. Kenny had grown stronger and more powerful in the time they’d spent together. As his knowledge of the Force had grown, so had the strength of his body. These days Kenny spent most of his days hauling around boulders and racing through forests for the sheer pleasure of it.

Kota watched the water sluicing down Kenny’s body for a long moment. His chest and strong waist were exposed and his loose pants clung to the muscles of his thighs and back. A now-familiar desire crept through him.

Kenny spotted him and waved him over. Kota approached him with a familiar feeling of trepidation.

Kenny straightened up in the light of Kota’s stare. A flush ran down his chest. “Hey,” he said. He joined Kota on the bank of the creek. The grass, an eerie soft blue, was springy under Kota’s hands.

Kenny was dripping water everywhere. He rested his arms on his knees and looked curiously at Kota, whose feedback was registering a question. Kota watched him knock back a bottle of water, his throat working. Kenny swiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared at him. “What is it? Still tired?

“Why have we never kissed?” Kota asked.

Kenny jerked in surprise. “You know why,” he said eventually.

There was a silence.

Kenny didn’t look at him. “Because we both know one day I’m going to leave.”

“Yeah?” Kota prompted.

A note of frustration and self directed anger came into Kenny’s voice. “Yeah. And when that happens we won’t be able to ...”

Kota searched Kenny’s eyes. His feedback was guarded. “Is that all?”

Kenny folded his arms. “Isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t worry about the future all that much,” Kota admitted. “I just live for today.”

“Well, that seems like a scary way to live,” Kenny said.

“Maybe.” Kota’s mouth quirked ruefully.

He waited until Kenny glanced back at him, unable to look away. He leaned forward and took Kenny’s strong hands in his own. He closed his fingers over Kenny’s, feeling their warmth and strength. Kenny bowed his head solemnly, their minds entwining.

“There are things we don’t talk about,” Kenny continued. “That’s one of them.”

Kota considered him carefully. “And the others?”

Kenny met his eyes, his gaze faltering. “You. We never talk about you.” His feedback indicated relief and fear at voicing the question. Kenny didn’t know who Kota was, where he’d come from, any of it. He’d told Kota all about his life, growing up enslaved in the Federation, the imperial army, the _Elite_ , everything.

“What do you want to know?” Kota said finally. He left unsaid all the disappointment and the guardedness they both felt.

Kenny sighed. “I don’t know. Anything.” There was a long silence, while Kota tried to organise his thoughts. “I told you about my parents.”

Kota’s lips curved into a small smile. “I remember.” There was another long silence. “Kenny… the problem is…”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Kenny said hurriedly. He was beginning to feel that his hands were too warm in Kota’s, but Kota didn’t let go. A fierce blush crept down his neck.

Kota heaved a sigh. “I want to.”

Kenny’s eyes held a cautious hope. This was the final barrier between them, the one that had stopped them from getting close. “Yeah?”

Kota nodded. “I just don’t like to think of the past, so much.” He took a deep breath. “You asked about my parents.”

“Yeah.” Kenny’s voice was low and rumbly. Kota’s skin prickled. He reached over and rubbed Kenny’s stubbled cheek with his thumb and closed his eyes.

“My mother was… a princess.”

“Really? Where—“

“Hush.” Kota pressed a finger to Kenny’s lips. He told the rest of the story through images and memories, expressing what words alone could not, while Kenny experienced them with him.

 

*

 

Young Kota grew up playing in the rivers and idly digging up shellfish on the wide, sea-rich coasts of his planet.

His mother was a great princess, beautiful and brave and a great leader of the people. But Kota was not called a prince, because his father was not a great royal, but merely a lowly smuggler who had become a charismatic leader in the Resistance Wars.

Kota was always running away from the palace and picking fights with local warriors, but he was loved by the people all the same.

From the earliest days he’d been able to sense his parents’ thoughts and their love for him. He’d grown up in the glow of that love until the whole planet, rich and thriving, had been targeted for retaliation by the Federation.

The memories were murky, full of fire and hiding places and imprisonment. The grief of his father’s death. The pain of being separated from his mother. The guilt of his own powerlessness as he was held under imprisonment by the Federation as war raged around him.

The Sith immediately recognised him as one of their own. He’d shown off his powers, his ability to destroy. The darkness that lay within in him like a murderous creature, allowed full reign after his peaceful life had been ripped from him. The realisation that he was had merely exchanged one kind of imprisonment for another. Finally, despite the Federation doing all they could to keep him, he’d escaped. He’d run, as far as he could, vowing never to be imprisoned again.

The nascent group who would one day become the New Jedi found him wandering alone and recognised the fierce battle of Light and Dark within him. They decided that he would the great and powerful leader of their group, and they trained him in their arts. Despite everything, it had felt like nothing more than another prison.

He left and forged his own path, a wanderer’s mask covering a loneliness that he’d kept hidden even from himself.

Kenny came out of the rush of sensations slowly, shaking. “I didn’t…”

“It’s okay.” Kota rested his head on Kenny’s shoulder and closed his eyes. “It’s okay, Kenny.”

“It wasn’t okay.” Kenny’s voice was trembling.

They sat in silence for a long time. The blue moons waxed bright in the sky. As the sun began to peek over the horizon, Kota raised his head and looked up at Kenny intently.

They leaned forward at the same time and their mouths met. Kenny tilted his head and raised a hand to Kota’s hair. His feedback was quiet.

Kota finally did want he’d always wanted to do and tangled a hand in Kenny’s hair. He deepened the kiss. Their lips and teeth and tongues clashed in a physical war.

Kota pulled way and tugged urgently on Kenny’s arm in the direction of the far side of the clearing, where the ship was stationed.

“Let’s just...” Kenny grabbed his wrist. He looked around at trees and undergrowth.

“You want to fuck in the forest?” Kota raised an eyebrow.

Kenny met his eyes in embarrassed confirmation and they both burst into laughter. There was a quality of relief in the laughter, a release of the tension and the darkness of the shared memories that had come before. Kota felt his spirits lift. Still chuckling, he pulled Kenny to his feet. He pressed their foreheads together.

He sent Kenny a series of images about the kinds of things he wanted to do.

Things that would require a bed and some supplies that weren’t going to be available in an uninhabited alien forest.

He grinned as Kenny’s eyes widened. He sprang out of Kenny’s grip and raced towards the ship.

“Get back here!” Kenny laughed, hot on his heels.

But despite Kenny’s strength in the force, Kota was and always would be faster.

He raced back into the ship and to the bedroom just as Kenny barrelled into him, the weight of his body slamming the breath out of him. Kota spun around. They fought for control in the doorway, grappling with teeth and tongue. Kenny dragged him into the bed and Kota climbed on top of him, steadying his shoulders.

“Is this a bad idea?” Kenny’s eyes were filled with doubt.

Kota kissed him firmly, pressing him into the mattress. “I want to. Do you?”

Kenny nodded his head breathlessly and pulled Kota down for another hard kiss.

“Then who cares about the rest?” Kota said breathlessly. He dove in to tug Kenny’s clothes off. He’d been wanting to be buried deep within Kenny’s body for so long that he could barely think.

“You know,” Kenny said, interrupted by Kota pulling off his shirt. “I’ve always wondered.” He gasped when Kota bit his shoulder, harder. “What it would be like to have sex in the Force.”

Kota stared at him and burst helplessly into laughter. “Kenny!”

“You know, you can read my mind, I can read your mind…” He trailed off when Kota’s mouth sucked and licked its way down his stomach. Kota sucked hard on Kenny’s hip.

Kota rolled back onto him. He grinned, pinning Kenny in place. He kissed his mouth firmly. “Enough talking,” he murmured against Kenny’s lips.

 

*

 

Kenny’s feedback was glimmering with an unasked question. Kota could feel him working up the courage to speak. He stroked Kenny’s hand slowly and felt Kenny smile uncertainly in the dark. Finally just as Kota thought he might be falling into blessed sleep, Kenny spoke.

“I’m going in two week’s time.”

Kota stared at the ceiling, the bed heavy where Kenny lay beside him. He didn’t say anything.

“I’ll be back.”

Kenny didn't say anything further. He was thinking self-flagellating thoughts. In fact, he was thinking: I'm going to remember and regret this night for the rest of my life.

“I had an idea.” Kenny raised himself up on an elbow. “Why don’t you come with me? To the New Jedi? They said they’d welcome you back with open arms…” Kenny flinched back when Kota sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t speak on my behalf to those people.”

Kenny looked up at him, flushing. “I know you have some kind of personal problem with them. But you’ve never even told me what it was.”

Kota’s eyes cut away and he shook his head. It felt as though all the barriers between them had tumbled down, but he still didn’t know how to put his uneasiness into words. “It’s not a personal problem. They’re just too rules-bound. Too old-fashioned. They don’t even…” Kota took hold of Kenny’s shoulder. “They don’t even allow romantic relationships there, Kenny. Certainly not between two men. You’re too naive if you think they’d change their ways.”

“Well, maybe I am naive.” It was Kenny’s turn to wrap his arms around Kota, grabbing him in a loose headlock. Kota wriggled free of Kenny’s bulging biceps with a laugh. “You’re one of the greatest Force users in the world. They’d do anything to have you. And they’re after me, too. Surely they’d be willing to relax a few of their rules to make sure we didn’t go to the Sith. I thought it would be enough.”

Kota rested his head against Kenny’s shoulder. “Kenny, I thought… I hoped… you were happy. Here. With me.”

“I am happy.” Kenny grinned. He kissed Kota’s lips. “I just… I want more. Maybe that’s wrong of me.”

“I would have been happy with you and me in this ship for the rest of our lives,” Kota admitted.

Kenny fell silent. Kota could sense that he was crumbling inside.

Kota touched his chest. “You don’t understand the nature of power. You just want more and more of it, without thinking about the consequences.”

Kenny fell back against the pillows, letting Kota’s hand fall away. He was thinking that being in a relationship with another Force user was not always as straightforward as he’d fantasised. “I have to see,” he said finally. “I have to know how strong my power can be.” Kota nodded. "...Are you angry with me?"

Kota lay back beside him. Even though he habitually kept his feedback hidden from Kenny, he allowed a wash of his complicated knot of feelings to touch Kenny's mind. He was sad and he was angry and he was proud all at once.

"No, Kenny,” he said. “We're very different people. You have your own path."

He held his arms out and Kenny rolled into him. Kota fell asleep with his hands threaded through Kenny’s hair, Kenny’s feedback calming his mind. 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter earns this fic a 'Mature' rating.

“You’re really leaving.” Kota said. He watched Kenny drape a bare arm over his sweat-soaked face. It was the early morning, but they’d woken up desperate for each other, charged with unspoken urgency.

“Yeah,” Kenny said quietly.

Kenny had been quietly getting together his meagre possessions and sending messages to the New Jedi in the Force for the past few days, but Kota had been choosing to ignore it. Every time Kenny, stuttering, tried to bring it up, Kota had silenced him with a kiss.

Now, Kota smiled despite himself. “I suppose I always knew you were going one day. If it hadn’t been the New Jedi, it would have been the Sith.”

Kenny cocked his head. “I’m surprised they didn’t, uh, recruit me. When I was in the Federation.”

“They’re idiotic and unable to recognise talent when they see it, I suppose.” Kota smirked at him from under his hair. “You’re not going to join them now, are you?”

“No! No… I just…” Kenny sighed. “The galaxy is always at war, isn’t it? Nothing’s ever peaceful. Not even the Force.”

“The Force itself is peaceful. It’s people who ruin it,” Kota said simply. He leaned forward when Kenny rolled into him, accepting Kenny’s bowed head into his arms. Kenny rested his cheek on Kota’s shoulder. Kota raised a hand to comb his fingers through Kenny’s volatile hair, feeling a slow sort of contentment roll over him. Kenny eyes were closed. He hummed softly.

It was the last few hours they’d have together, possibly forever. Kota closed his eyes and allowed himself to enjoy it.

 

*

 

"They're here."

Two figures stepped off the ship.

A rat-like man with a long beard stepped off the ship first. Tanahashi, his expression schooled to sternness, followed. Both wore the long sand-coloured monastic robes and the wrappings of the New Jedi. The shorter man introduced himself as Gedo.

Tanahashi looked sternly over at Kota, whose arms were folded. “Greetings, Ibushi. Not joining us today?”

Kota stared at him fiercely. “Not ever, Tanahashi.”

Gedo pointed a stubby finger at the sky, where the second of the New Jedi ships was waiting. “It’s time to go.”

Kenny spun around and looked at Kota. His expression, so far schooled to bravery, suddenly broke.

Kota held out his hand to shake, but Kenny pulled him into a long hug, squeezing him close. Kota could feel that Kenny was close to tears, not having realised how much this would affect him. It suddenly sparked in Kenny’s mind that he couldn’t leave Kota without one last kiss. Kota touched his face gently as their lips met.

Kota glanced at Tanahashi and Gedo, whose expressions were both twisted in disgust. He held the kiss longer, pulling Kenny close.

“I love you,” Kenny said in a rush. He was thinking, that if he didn’t say it now, he might never get the chance.

Kota stepped back. “I know.”

Kenny drank in his last glance. Then he turned around and boarded the ship before he changed his mind.

 

*

 

Kota stood in the same spot for a long time. The ship had long departed into the brilliant blue sky and disappeared.

He knew he was supposed to leave Kenny be, that he was forbidden from going anywhere near the New Jedi if he refused to be one of their own.

But Kota had always been a selfish bastard, and he always would be.

Making public appearances in places as far from Coruscant as possible, so that the New Jedi wouldn’t get suspicious, he kept an eye on Kenny, who was like a planetary beacon in the Force to Kota. With his abilities in the Force, Kota was able to reach out and see Kenny, though Kenny couldn’t reciprocate, only smile at the familiar touch of his mind.

Kenny rapidly learned and grew in the Force over the following years. While he missed Kota, the other padawans were full of stories about Kota’s exploits and notorious deeds. Kenny comforted himself at night in his unfamiliar, militaristic bunk with imaginings of Kota, younger, more foolish, more arrogant, blazingly gifted and rebelling against the New Jedi at every turn, but basking in their praise and admiration all the time. Kenny was told, on countless occasions, of the legendary bout between Master Jedi Nakamura and a newly graduated padawan Kota, which had left a crater in the eastern Coruscantian desert that was still there to this day.

Kota listened to these stories third-hand as if they’d happened to someone else, drinking in Kenny’s awe and admiration at the former life of the man he loved.

As Kenny grew and progressed in the New Jedi temple, and even after he became a famed Jedi warrior, he never kept it a secret that he and Kota were lovers. But it was barely mentioned in the Temple, though he sometimes received Looks. Still, he was already Federation-born scum and an exotic-looking foreigner from a different quadrant to boot. Half of the New Jedi seemed to think he was going to turn into a Sith at the slightest provocation. Being in love with a man was nothing more than another character flaw to add to the list.

Kota sensed that Kenny was proud with his life with New Jedi, who respected him for his great powers, but that he always felt there was something missing. His newfound stature concealed a sense of disappointment that his power had not led to the contentment he’d expected.

Sometimes Kenny dreamt, and Kota found he was able to enter these dreams.

Kenny always looked younger and more peaceful in his dreams.

“I love you,” Kenny said with a brilliant smile. They were in bed together.

Kota took Kenny’s hand and kissed his forehead. He held Kenny in his arms until he woke.

 

*

 

_One day, a few years in, Kota found that Kenny’s voice was faint but steadily clearer in his head._

_Kenny?!_

_Testing. Oh my gosh, it works._

_How are you reaching me in the Force? I’m on Tatooine._

_Oh, gross. What are you doing that far away from civilisation?_

_Looking for robot parts._

_You’re weird, man._

Tell me about your day.

_I won another match. Gedo makes us all fight each other. I win most of the time._

_Good._

_They talk about you a lot. Your achievements. I’m not jealous. Well, maybe a little bit._

_I know._

_And I can read Coruscantian pretty well now. Some of the characters still throw me off, though._ A pause. _Gedo doesn’t like me very much._

_No?_

_I asked him why there aren’t any women in the New Jedi temple. He didn’t seem happy about that._

_They have a much more historic and renowned temple of their own._ Amusement.

_I know that now! Then Gedo gave me a long lecture about how the life of a Jedi is a calling and no earthly attachments should come between a warrior and the Jedi way._

_Sounds familiar._

_The next day, Tanahashi gave me another lecture about how inelegant my use of the Force is, and how my interpretation of the Force is flawed, and how the Dark is strong within me. I mean, seriously? ‘The Dark is strong within me?’_

_You know that’s not true._

_Yeah, he’s a clown. I think the fact that I haven’t been quiet about me and you bothers him. Sometimes I get this feeling of absolute disgust from his feedback._

_I’m sorry._

_I don’t care, though. You know I owe everything to you, right? And I miss you so much._

_I miss you too._

 

*

 

One evening, famed Jedi knight Kenny Omega was finished with his instruction of the newest group of padawans, who had been clumsy as hell even if they’d shown a lot of promise. Jedi Master Okada had laughed at his rant about them after. Now he towelled his face off with the corner of his robe and trudged back to his tiny room within the Temple.

The room was silent as always, dust hanging in the air. The same as he’d left it, except for one major difference.

“What the heck are you doing here?” Kenny stared at the man with the familiar, rock-cut features and the wrappings around his wrists and ankles. “How did you even get in here?!”

“I used the Force, Kenny.” Kota grinned. “Nobody noticed me.”

“You can do that?” He blinked several times at the sight of Kota in his modest room, looking like a vision or a fantasy. Kota was still as handsome as ever. His robes were dark blue, and a golden tan had bronzed his skin. His hair was shorter but his eyes were as bright as ever. Kenny forgot all his questions when Kota leapt on him and proved that he wasn’t a fantasy by kissing him firmly against the wall.

“Missed you,” Kota murmured against his lips. His eyes drank in the sight of Kenny, who’d put on muscle in the intervening years, in his loose Jedi robes.

Kenny kissed him back urgently. They broke apart and pressed their foreheads together. “Seriously, no one can find out you’re here. We’re not even meant to be together anymore. Everyone thinks we’re mortal enemies. I, ah, kind of encouraged that story to be honest. Said how I’d surpassed you.”

“I heard.” Kota said dryly. “You’re gaining quite the notoriety on Coruscant. I’m starting to think I don’t know you any more.” He raised an eyebrow.

“It’s just a facade.” Kenny kissed him again, looping an arm around Kota’s slim waist to bring their bodies firmly together. He was rapidly wondering how he’d gone years without the firm feel of Kota’s body. “They really think I’m going to defect to the Federation and become a Sith, for fuck’s sake.”

“Ignore them.” Kota’s mouth was sweet and warm against his own. Kenny found he couldn’t seem to stop kissing him long enough to speak.

“I know, I just - I just wish everyone liked me the way they all loved you. Everyone thinks I’m a weirdo.”

Kota undid his belt. “Not everyone’s going to like you, Kenny. The key is not to care.”

Kenny sighed. “Yeah, I still gotta figure that one out.”

Kota dragged him into the bed and they made short work of each other’s clothes. Kota pressed him down onto the mattress. “I want you,” he murmured against Kenny’s mouth. Kenny reached down and palmed Kota’s firm ass. He really had _no idea_ how he’d gone without this for so long.

“Mm. Yeah?” Kenny sat up in surprise when Kota rolled over next to him. Kota pulled him in.

Soon, they were rocking against each other, Kenny buried deep in Kota’s body. “Want to be able to feel you when I leave,” Kota murmured in the space between their bodies. His eyes were closed.

Kenny swore under his breath and thrust faster. Kota’s arms and legs were wrapped him, pulling him in urgently. “Fuck. Missed you.”

“Yeah?” A chuckle bubbled up from deep within Kota’s chest. Kenny thought about how beautiful Kota was, how he needed Kota, all the time, how he wanted to leave his mark in Kota’s body, how he wanted to take him apart, make him come, make him _yell_ Kenny’s name. Kota came silently, to Kenny’s distant disappointment, gritting his teeth, his body tense and then releasing. Kenny pressed his face into Kota’s sweat-slicked shoulder and let himself come, emptying and shuddering into Kota’s welcoming body.

They lay entwined against each other, their rapid breaths slowing.

Kenny had so many things he wanted to say, and there was no time to say any of it. He felt a spike of anxiety interrupt the state of calm he’d achieved in Kota’s strong arms. They were going to run out of time soon.

Kota’s feedback was clear and peaceful. He stroked Kenny’s back carefully, his hand warm and firm.

Kenny closed his eyes and held him on to him tighter.

After a while, Kota raised his head and looked at the walls around them, sensing something. “I had better get out of here.”

“What - already?” Kenny sat up. Kota was pulling on his clothes. “I didn’t even - get to talk to you properly.”

Kota leapt from the bed. “I’m always there in the Force.”

“May the Force be with you, I guess,” Kenny sighed.

Kota grinned and disappeared out of the door.

The cold room felt chillier and emptier in his absence. Kenny pulled the pillow Kota had been lying on to his chest, breathing in the last remnants of the smell of Kota’s body. Willing himself to keep it together. For just a little while longer. Just a little longer. And then a litte longer after that. Even if everything in him was screaming at him to follow Kota out of the door.

“Soon,” he told himself. It was the only way he knew to keep himself where he was.

 


	7. Epilogue

  _Ten years later:_

Kota watched the tringgal fly with its six wings onto the next branch, and the next, and the next. The unnamed planet’s two suns burned bright in the sky, and a pleasant breeze skittered through the trees. He sat back against one of their branches and closed his eyes. The Force was wonderfully stable and calm through this place. All things alive and thrumming with energy. No darkness, no tragedy had ever befallen this place. Nothing had ever torn the flow of the Force apart, leaving ugly welts through its invisible layers. It was untouched.

Kota carefully raised a hand and the tringgal landed on the back of his wrapped palm. It hooted. Kota smiled.

"There you are." A crunch of a boot through the leaves heralded the arrival of Kenny, hair clouding, pink-faced and breathing heavily. "I could barely follow your coordinates."

"I was just wandering in the _Golden Star_ and came across this system on the outer edges…” Kota began. The tringgal had flown off. He got to his feet, brushing the dust from his robes.

"Would it kill you to learn to use a map?" Kenny teased. “Though I’m not sure this place is on any maps.”

Kota studied Kenny carefully. Kenny looked older and wiser than ever. His hair, going grey, still fluffed up from his head like a crown. After ten years of being a Jedi warrior, the stresses and demands of that life had aged him, though his blue eyes twinkled as brightly as ever.

Kota had been wandering all this time. He’d had adventures, and explored the far corners of the galaxy, always feeling that he had a home to return to. Not a place - his home planet was long gone - but a person.

Kenny was considering him solemnly. “Fuck, how have you not aged in ten years?”

“Easy living,” Kota teased, coming forward. He admired how strong Kenny looked. How healthy. How the desert-coloured robes of the New Jedi suited him perfectly now after so many years of wear. He looked like a star out of a holofilm, strong and mysterious.

“Ever consider going back to the New Jedi?” Kenny murmured. It was an old conversation. Kota shook his head. "I was wondering..."

"Yes?" Kota considered his serious expression carefully.

"Whether you might accept this." He held out a familiar black metal object. It was Kota’s old lightsaber. His eyes widened.

“Kenny, that’s yours."

"It's ours." Kenny closed Kota's hand around it. “If you’ll accept it.”

Kota carefully switched it on. Kenny’s hand was wrapped around his own.

The lightsaber buzzed a brilliant gold just as it had the first time, all those years ago. Kota turned it back off carefully, his heartbeat thumping.

"Are you really..." Kota was afraid to even say the words.

Not less than a week ago, Kenny had sent him the question Kota had been waiting on all these years. A request for co-ordinates. Kota had replied immediately.

But now that Kenny was in front of him, in person, Kota found himself suddenly unable to speak.

Kenny touched his cheek. "I thought we might travel the world together. Maybe even start our own Jedi order. If we so liked. If there were any promising students."

“I’ve wanted that for years,” Kota breathed. “I want to research the Force. There are so many mysteries left.” He held up their lightsaber.

Kenny smiled brightly at him, the years lifting from his face.“Yeah?”

Kota reached for his hands. “We could - go to other systems, if we liked. See how things are done. Explore. Have adventures..”

“And change the galaxy while we’re at it?” Kenny teased. Kota pulled him close and kissed him carefully. “Take me with you from now on, okay?”

“Okay,” Kota grinned against his lips.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this silliness; leave a comment if you enjoyed.


End file.
